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This is a thread in which to post your favourite photo(s) of a particular species taken in 2011.....................or the last time you saw one!

This is part of a series which will hopefully grow throughout the winter until all 58 British species have been covered. Three new threads will be introduced per week. Our overseas friends are welcome to fill in the obvious gaps relating to our rare migrants, but please try to observe the alphabetical listing

Details of places, dates, times and circumstances would be appreciated and please feel free to contribute observations of behaviour, personal encounters, anecdotes and other interesting points.

Vince

This is about the best I managed. Despite seeing loads of them at the end of June in Alice Holt forest, I didn't manage to get any photos there at all. So it wasn't until I was in Bedford Purlieus a month later (looking for White-letter Hairstreaks) that I got this shot:


Bedford Purlieus, Cambs, 20-Jul-2011. Sony A700, Tamron/180/3.5

x

My favourite SWF image is always going to be a valesina specimen. This is the last one I saw, unsurprisingly in Southwater Woods.
Neil

My favourite of the year came from Black Park in South Bucks. This is a large Country Park which has a relatively small area of deciduous woodland (Strawberry Wood) which is home to Purple Emperors, White Admirals and Silver-washed Fritillaries. This part of the park is literally just over the fence from Pinewood Studios. Photo taken on 1st July.

Dave

In the Alps, early July...
remember being Clegg'd to death at the time!

This is my contribution, two pictures taken at Oaken Wood. The numbers of S.W.F. were very low here this year,
and i did`nt manage to photograph a female, infact i only saw three indivduals. Dave, thats a absolutely lovely shot.

Nick.

Thanks, Nick! Your first one is a stunner, too. He must have been absolutely fresh out of the box - not a mark on him.

Dave

I saw Silver Washed Fritillaries in fairly good numbers at a few woods in the midlands including Oversley, Ryton and Grafton.
The most that I saw on any one day must have been about 20+ at Snitterfield Bushes near Stratford-upon-Avon where the photos below were all taken.
I was particularly pleased to see this Valesina female.
Cheers,

Neil F.

This is my favourite photo of SWF as it was taken at Bentley Woods and is totally different from almost all of my other shots of this (and other) species that I have. I remember bumping into someone at Bentley Woods in 2010, I was heading back to the car after a blissful morning with my first Purple Hairstreak, Silver Washed and White Admirals, he was just heading out. As we exchanged pleasentaries and I told him of my successes he called SW Frits "big, beautiful ginger beasties", and this view of them has stuck in my mind since then as it just fits them so perfectly.
This image was taken at Garston Wood and was special as the previous week I had my camera set up all wrong so missed out on a perfect shot, so to turn up a week later and find the Valesina a second time was amazing! It also played out it's apparent "usual behaviour", sticking to the shadows and hiding in the shade.
Have a goodun

Wurzel

No hard choices here - I only seem to have taken one photo of this species this year!
Mike

Some beautiful images in this thread

I did not get many in 2011, but one stands out because it was taken so late in the season. This "Woodland Warrior" was still flying on 2nd September.
I am lucky to have them in my local woods.

Vince

As Vince said, there are indeed some lovely images in this thread, of one of my favourite butterflies.

I like the way the light gleams off this pristine male, resting on a fence post at the Botany Bay car park (on July 2nd 2011).

Two males at Bedford Purliews. Edited thanks to the query from Goldie Eric

Last time I photographed them, New Forest, in a ride off Hollands Wood campsite, it was a cracking year for them.

Eric Y said
SWF 2 males EricY at Arnside Knot
What time of year was this Goldie M

Sorry Goldie, I got my sence of time & place wrong! (not the first time lol). It was actually Bedford Purliews Cambs/Northants border on 24-6-11. Eric

Join the club Eric You had me excited there for a Minute, I was thinking great that's so near to me
I'm going to Dorset in May for a week then onto Devon for another week, I've down loaded some places, I'd like to know though, if there's one place in particular I can see that has loads of unusual BF like, the Marsh Fritllary for instance. We're going for the last two weeks in May to South Dorset and North Devon Goldie M
I've put a photo in of the only SWF i've taken, ever, that was in Denge Wood Kent and it wasn't in such great shape Goldie

Glorious though they are, I too admit that I didn't pay this species much attention in 2011. I'd kind of filled my boots with them the previous year and was concentrating more on Hairstreaks during last year's woodland visits.

It was nice to see plenty of them flying at Old Castle Down in south Wales, one of the few places where you can see large numbers of SWF, SPBF, Dark Green & High Brown Frits throughout the summer.

2011-08-02; GPS for Google Maps: 49.358263,18.144747 (Valasske Mts., CZE)
Olympus E-450, 14-42 mm kit

This is one of the species more impressive in real-time than on the photo.

Since SWF is a common Central European species even markedly expansing around my village, I consider this shot (below) average, with lack of atmosphere, and to be removed next season at the latest. In areas of surviving small-scale management, the SWF often lives in a (very) high numbers, especially in August, and everywhere saving dense woods (pastures + mowed/wild/forest meadows + even marshy areas with Burnets). So the meeting with SWF is more or less inevitable